Fewer outages seen from expanded ILP

Power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) hopes to come up with a higher de-loading capacity to mitigate possible outages this summer after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved changes to the rules governing the Interruptible Load Program (ILP).

The ILP is a government measure to help address the looming energy shortage.

Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence S. Fernandez said they are ready for the implementation of the amended ILP rules as approved by the ERC.

“We are awaiting publication of the amendments to ERC’s ILP Rules that expand the ILP,” Fernandez told The Manila Times.

Under the amended rules, contestable customers and directly connected customers of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) will also be included in the ILP.

Contestable customers are those customers that have a choice of electricity retailer, while non-contestable customers do not.

Under existing ILP rules, only distribution utilities such as Meralco may implement the program, which limits the number of big power users from joining the program. With the amendments, the de-loading capacity will increase as more companies will be able to join the scheme.

The amended rules require the distribution utilities or the NGCP to call on the ILP participants as soon as a grid goes on red alert or when there is severe power deficiency.